The last visit of Heyling to the old Man from the interpolated short story “The Old Man's Tale about the Queer Client” — eighteenth steel engraving for Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club; two versions by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) for the November 1836 (eighth monthly) number and the 1838 bound volume, in Chapter XXI, “In which the old Man launches forth into his favourite theme, and relates a Story about a queer Client,” facing page 223. Original illustration is 9.5 cm high by 10 cm wide (3 ⅝ high by 4 inches wide) for the novel's sixth interpolated tale. In the initial engraving (Plate A), as Johannsen (1956) notes, "There are three ceiling joists, not counting the one at the back against the wall of the room" (34), with "Phiz, del in rather thin and pale letters, and below it page 223." In contrast, Plate B, used in the 1838 bound volume, does not have the page number, but bears both the artist's signature and the caption. Significantly, in the revised design Phiz has altered both men's faces: "The old man's face is turned so that both eyes show" (Johnannsen, 35). The two features that immediately distinguish the two distinct versions are the glowing candle on the table, which is much brighter in Plate A, and Heyling's Poe-esque features in Plate B. This latter innovation makes the B Plate a very different illustration in terms of its characterization of the vengeful Heyling. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage illustrated: The Confrontation of Antagonists in the Interpolated Tale
The object of his search and his unrelenting animosity, now a decrepit old man, was seated at a bare deal table, on which stood a miserable candle. He started on the entrance of the stranger, and rose feebly to his feet.
"What now, what now?" said the old man. "What fresh misery is this? What do you want here?"
"A word with you," replied Heyling. As he spoke, he seated himself at the other end of the table, and, throwing off his cloak and cap, disclosed his features.
The old man seemed instantly deprived of speech. He fell backward in his chair, and, clasping his hands together, gazed on the apparition with a mingled look of abhorrence and fear. [Chapter XXI, from the inset narrative "The Tale about the Queer Client," 223]
Commentary: Realizing the Climax of the Interpolated Tale
When Phiz came to work on the illustration for this interpolated tale, he confronted the same problem that Seymour had had to deal with: the social realism of The Dying Clown (April 1836). Once again, the bitter narrative sharply contrasts the humorous tone of the episodic "papers" of the genial and sometimes bumbling Pickwick Club. Since Dickens's suspenseful, melodramatic tale underscores the psychological consequences of harbouring a rabid desire for revenge, Phiz has had to shift from a comic idiom to a dramatic mode. Working in the manner of a staged melodrama, Phiz externalizes the story's psychological conflict. Placed conspicuously at the head of the eighth serial part, in November 1836, the engraving would have signalled to the reader that the piece's protagonist, George Heyling, a Marshalsea debtor, will indeed be able to confront and denounce his antagonist, "the old man," Heyling's vindictive father-in-law.
In the November 1836 engraving The Last Visit of Heyling to the Old Man Phiz realises the climactic scene in which Heyling, having secured his enemy's economic annihilation by acquiring all his promissory notes, confronts his elderly father-in-law in his garret in Little College Street, Camden Town. As Heyling throws off his travelling cloak and cap to disclose his features, the old man (last seen on the seashore when he witnessed his son's drowning) is stunned into silence by the commanding figure of the cloaked avenger. Phiz has deployed the stout door behind Heyling as a signifier of the avenger's determination.
Throughout his writings in 1836, as Deborah A. Thomas notes, Dickens "seems to have been fascinated with the idea of using short stories to examine the mentally abnormal" (21). In an episodic novel filled with rollicking farce and humorous characters Dickens uses the oral tales of incidental characters to introduce the kind of material commonly found in Gothic novels: murder, mayhem, sadistic violence, wicked fathers, and implacable avengers. However, such realistic backdrops as the Marshalsea Prison in this story and Little Dorrit (all too familiar to Dickens from the days of his own father's incarceration there in 1824) point to such contemporary and realistic materials as police procedurals, the Newgate novel, and sensational stories crime-and-detection. The stark illustration suggests Dickens's chief inspiration for the tale of depravity and vengeance: the contemporary melodrama.
Jane Rabb Cohen in Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators notes that, in his 1838 revision of the 1836 engraving, Phiz defines the interior more sharply and renders the figures more effectively by intensifying their expressions: "he first strengthens the lines defining the ceiling beams, window, window panes, and door in the interior in which the visit takes place. The originally effete expressions of both men become intensely dramatic as terror is added to the older face, a fierce scowl to the younger, more enlarged one" (p. 66). The single candle with its halo divides the space occupied by the terrified old man as he cringes, leaning far to the left in his arm-chair, and the implacable Heyling, whose left arm remains dramatically in mid-air as he has just revealed himself. Phiz has positioned the figures so that Heyling, immediately in front of the garret's massive door, effectively blocks the only avenue of escape for the old man. The menacing shadows loom over Heyling, connoting dark intentions, whereas the object of his vengeance casts no shadow, so insubstantial has he become.
Heyling's revenge upon his callous father-in-law now comes to fruition in this scene as the former debtor, now a very rich widower, reveals not merely his identity but his intention. After Heyling has obtained his elderly father-in-law's promissory notes, he is in a position to force the unscrupulous attorney into bankruptcy and the dreaded debtors' prison. The picture constitutes a pregnant moment because the terrified sufferer will succumb to the stress of his situation, cheating nemesis by dying of stroke or heart attack. Phiz signals his physical decline by the guttering candle on the bare table. Clutching his hands together in the standard melodramatic pose of entreaty, the object of Heyling’s vindictiveness is transfixed by his persecutor’s stern gaze. Phiz seems to have caught the avenger in the act of seating himself. Having just thrown back his cloak, Heyling blocks the old man's access to the stout door, and escape. Heyling has finally sealed the trap he has so carefully laid over the past six years since his brother-in-law's drowning. A full moon, suggestive of his plot's coming to fruition, shines through the patched and broken leaded panes of the garret window, and the bare floorboards and walls devoid of any decoration likewise reinforce the old man's having been reduced to living in poverty in "the meanest-looking house" (182) in Little College Street. Since, as Valerie Browne Lester notes, Dickens as a "micro-manager" (50) carefully supervised and approved each of Phiz's illustrations for this work, the reader should regard The last visit of Heyling to the old man as likely reflecting Dickens's intentions in this interpolated tale.
Revising his thoughts about this tale of vengeance, and freed from Dickens's supervisory gaze at last, in the 1874 Household Edition illustration of this story, Phiz chose an entirely different moment for realisation, the scene in which the old man begs Heyling to save his son from drowning: “Heyling!” said the old man wildly. “My boy, Heyling, my dear boy, look, look!” Gasping for breath, the miserable father pointed to the spot where the young man was struggling for life. This more natural realisation is equally theatrical, suggesting a stage set in the flat backdrop of waves, but is less dramatic, and is therefore less effective in presenting Heyling as the implacable avenger.
Related Illustrations for this Chapter from Other Editions (1837, 1874)
Left: Phiz's 1874 interpretation of the melodramatic tale: “Heyling!" said the old man wildly. “My boy, Heyling, my dear boy, look, look!” Gasping for breath, the miserable father pointed to the spot where the young man was struggling for life. Right: Thomas Onwhyn's “extra” illustration of 31 August 1837: “You are very right, Sir,” said the ghost politely, “it never struck me till now — I’ll try a change of air directly.” [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Related Materials: Dickens's Short Fiction, 1833-68
- The Nine Interpolated Tales in Pickwick
- Interpolated Tales in Dickens's Pickwick, 1836-37
- A Comprehensive List of Dickens's Short Fiction, 1833-1868
- An Overview of Dickens's Short Fiction, 1833-1868
- A Critical Analysis of Dickens's Short Fiction, 1833-68
- Dickens' Aesthetic of the Short Story
- The Victorian Short Story: A Brief History
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
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Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 6.
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book Co., 1910.
Johnannsen, Albert. "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club." Phiz Illustrations from the Novels of Charles Dickens. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1956. Pp. 1-74.
Patten, Robert L. "The Art of Pickwick's Interpolated Tales." English Literary History 34 (1967): 349-66.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-50.
Thomas, Deborah A.. Dickens and the Short Story. Philadelphia: Philadelphia U. P., 1982.
Created 3 November 2019
Last modified 13 March 2024